[2018-12-09-NJPW] Taichi vs Will Ospreay

[paul sosnowski]

#1 Contender's Match for the Never Openweight TItle.     Talk about it here

[ShittyLittleBoots]

It's rare for a match to make me go "wow, this is actually goddamn BRUTAL", but Taichi's work over Ospreay's injured ribs did exactly that. He was RUTHLESS going after the injury - those shots at the guardrail made me cringe. Vicious stuff. And Ospreay's selling & overall work, fighting from underneath, was him pretty much the best I personally like him. Excellent match. ****

[Boss Rock]

Without a doubt the greatest Taichi match I've ever seen and it's not even close. I would have never guessed this guy could be a pretty decent wrestler when so many of his matches revolve around the same tired 10 minutes of stalling with intermittent interference spots. Instead. Taichi rushes Will from the beginning and works over his ribs. I've always seen flashes of Taichi having good striking so it was good to see him work lots of kicks in this. Will's comebacks are well-timed and he does a great job selling the ribs. Just a really good, back-and-forth match that never overstays its welcome or feels padded in any way. ****